Thursday, March 20, 2014

Horrors of Spider Island (1962)

There is something to be said about horror movies that feature a group of scantily clad women being terrorized by an unknown killer. Some of those things are good... others, not so good.

After Gary and several female dancers crash land near an apparently deserted island, the group begin planning how to escape the island. When Gary disappears, the women begin to be killed one by one...

"Horrors of Spider Island" is a horror movie from West Germany, whose apparently reason for existance was to display beautiful women in bikini's being terrorized by a monster. Nothing more, nothing less.

The title gives an expectation of an "Arachnophobia" type of movie. Too bad, there's only one spider- and a really cheesy, cheap one at that. When it bites Gary, you're given the expectation of possibly a cool spider transformation of Gary. Too bad, the make-up on him looks NOTHING like a spider. There was so much potential here for a decent story, but it falls far from the mark.

For a movie with such a large group of characters, you'd expect some really interesting ones, and some engaging interactions between them. There isn't. They're all pretty much in the movie because they're beautiful, and look good in bikinis... which they do. Even Gary lacks any sort of development that makes you pity him as he transforms. His purpose seemed to be mostly to run around without a shirt on.

Acting. You would expect a movie to have some. Well, you'd be disappointed. Once again, the actresses were mostly present to present the male audience some eye candy. It's a good thing I have a sweet tooth in that regard. After this movie, Alexander D'Arcy (Gary) experienced a severe drop in his career.

The camera work isn't great either- not surprising, since this movie was filmed within the span of a month. Once again, there was such potential to use shadows and lights, and angles to create tension, suspense (and better showcase the lovely ladies), but all such opportunities were missed.

I have no real choice, but to toss "Horrors of Spider Island" into The Ugly.